At about 4:30 p.m. last Wednesday Jesse Lee Powell, 23, of Bessemer City, NC was struck by a rock approximately 4-feet-by-2-feet-by-2-feet in size which rolled about 20 feet down a steep slope and landed on him.   
Powell was clearing brush from the right-of-way along a section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Foothills Parkway, which is under construction about 10 miles east of Walland in Blount County, TN.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Rangers responded to the scene where they worked with Blount County Sheriff Office Deputies, Blount County Rescue Squad, Blount County Fire Department, and Blount Special Operations Response Team, to stabilize the patient and lower him about 20 feet before he could be carried to a Rural Metro Ambulance.  
Bessemer was subsequently transferred to a LIFESTAR helicopter which transported him to the University of Tennessee Medical Center where he arrived at about 6:58 p.m.
Bessemer was treated for minor injuries and released.
Construction on the Parkway is being carried out under by a Federal Highway Administration contractor, Lane Construction of Charlotte, NC.
Bessemer is an employee of Phillips and Jordan Construction of Robbinsville, NC, a subcontractor of Lane Construction.
An investigation of the mishap is being carried out by the National Park Service, the Federal Highway Administration and the contractors.

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